Cyrus McCormick

Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809 to 1884) was an American inventor and businessman who founded the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company, which became part of the International Harvester Company in 1902. Born in Raphine, Virginia, he always claimed credit as the single inventor of the mechanical reaper, although he was one of several designers of working models in the 1830s and built on more than two decades of work by his father Robert McCormick Jr. and on help from Jo Anderson, an enslaved man held by the family. He received a patent in 1834 and, after moving to Chicago in 1847 with his brother Leander, built a factory and developed marketing and sales techniques, including a network of salesmen trained to demonstrate and repair the machines in the field. He was also a prominent Presbyterian benefactor, and after his death in 1884 control of the company passed to his son Cyrus Jr.